Mumbai sees 6.4% rise in luxury home prices in 2022; ranks 37th globally

India's financial capital Mumbai has been ranked 37th in the global list of movement in luxury home price rise as it saw an appreciation of 6.4% in luxury home prices in 2022, according to a Knight Frank India report. One can buy 113 square metres of prime property in Mumbai for $1 million.

Property prices in Mumbai are expected to rise by 3% in 2023, says the report, adding the city is the 18th most expensive prime residential market globally. Also, it ranked among the five most expensive ones in Asia-Pacific.

Monaco holds on to its title as the "most expensive residential market" globally. However, in 2022, the strong currency rewarded the US dollar-based buyer with two extra square metres for their money compared with a year ago.

The report says New York (33 sq m) has leapfrogged London (34 sq m), again due to the strength of the greenback, making it the “third priciest city”, although the two cities along with Singapore (34 sq m) are pretty evenly tied.

New York also retained its crown as the most “active super-prime market”, with 244 sales of $10 million or more. “Los Angeles and London complete the top three with 225 and 223 respectively.”

Dubai’s 44% annual price growth may conjure up notions of high prices, but values are rising from a low base, the report adds. “Here, $1 million buys 105 sq m, five times as much space as in Hong Kong. For real value, head to Cape Town or São Paulo where the same budget bestows more than 200 sq m.”

The Covid pandemic-induced boom in prime, super-prime and ultra-prime markets globally continued into 2022, the report finds. “Some 1,392 sales were transacted at or above US$10 million across 10 global markets. While this represents a decline compared with the record-breaking 2,076 transactions recorded in 2021, it is still 49% above 2019 levels and equates to US$26.3 billion in sales.”

As with many market segments, the second half of 2022 saw a slowdown in transactions as the cost of debt rose and talk of the recession began to enter the daily vocabulary. However, the decline was moderate with 44% of transactions happening in the final six months.

Surprisingly, European cities were the most resilient. Both Geneva and Paris saw their super-prime sales grow and London’s sales numbers dipped marginally with only two fewer than in 2021. The UK capital, which shares the top spot with New York in the ultra-prime segment, recorded 43 sales of $25 million or more – the highest level since 2014.

As per the report, after the anomaly of 2021, the year 2022 was something of a transitional year. “Some pandemic trends continued to play out, while mounting headwinds prompted some to reflect on their assets and investment strategies.”

For the year 2023, the report forecasts that the normalisation process could continue as transaction levels would revert to pre-pandemic levels, down on the past two years but still highly active.